• Funded Research
• Dissemination and Communications
• Conference Participation
• Foreign Delegations and Visiting Scholars
• Governance and Partnerships
• Work in Progress

Funded Research
The results of the second round of adjudicated CERIS research awards were announced in June, 1997. A total of more than $147,000 went to one project in the economic domain, three in the education domain, five in the community domain (social services, other), and two in the community domain (health).

The third Request for Proposals for 1998 projects is published in November, 1997.

Dissemination and Communications
Based on consultation coordinated by Dr. Scot Wortley of the Centre for Criminology at the University of Toronto and on literature reviews by CERIS research assistants, our response to Immigration Legislation Review was published in June, 1997.

The second CERIS newsletter was published in October with news of our second round of research awards, and updates on activities. The third newsletter is published in November and contains the 1998 Request for Proposals.

The June workshop Community Services for Refugee Settlement -- Trends and Issues in Metro Toronto was sponsored by CERIS along with the City of Toronto Refugee Housing Task Group and the University of Toronto Centre for Applied Social Research (CASR).

September saw the start of a monthly seminar series with The Warmth of Our Welcome: Social Institutions and Immigrant Integration in Canada's Cities (Jeff Reitz, Dept. of Sociology and Centre for Industrial Relations, University of Toronto). Other topics include Implementing Immigrant Health Care Services in Urban and Rural South Australia (October, Jeff Fuller, University of South Australia); Methodology in University-Community Research Partnerships, (November, Faculty of Social Work University of Toronto and Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture research team); and Dilemmas of 'Ethnic Match' in Health and Social Services, (December, Morton Weinfield, McGill University). The next seminars begin in January, 1998.

Conference Participation
CERIS directors and delegates were active participants in the April Canadian Ethnic Studies Conference Shaping Ethnicity -- Toward the Millenium (Toronto), the April meetings of the Urban Affairs Association (Toronto), and the August special session of the Canadian Association of Geographers (Newfoundland). In June our representatives took part in the meeting of the Learned Society and the associated Education Domain conference discussing Citizenship Education (St. John’s). In August delegates attended the Metropolis conference Canada in APEC - The People Dimension (Vancouver), and September was time for the second international Metropolis conference in Copenhagen.

Several important conferences took place in Toronto in September and October. CERIS delegates and affiliates were active in the eighteenth annual conference of the Chinese Immigrant Service Agencies Network International (CISANI), and at Citizenship in Diverse Societies: Theory and Practice, organized by the Canadian Centre for Philosophy and Public Policy. As well, CERIS helped sponsor and organize the Urban Forum on Immigration and Refugee Issues in Metro Toronto, at which more than 400 delegates came together to discuss the future of immigrant settlement and ethnoracial equality issues in the new city of Toronto.

Our directors, Board members, staff and affiliates were also active in helping organize the various mini-conferences by theme and domain for the second pan-Canadian Metropolis conference in November in Montreal.

Foreign Delegations and Visiting Scholars
Visiting Scholars at CERIS for 1997-98 include Dr. Joe Darden (Dean, Urban Affairs, Michigan State University); Jeff Fuller, Msc., RN, RPN, Migrant Health Research Fellow, Centre for Research into Nursing and Health Care, University of South Australia; Dr. Damaris Rose, INRS-Urbanisation, Montreal; and Dr. Morton Weinfeld, Sociology, McGill University and Immigration et Métropoles Montreal.

Foreign delegations visiting with CERIS included representatives of the Indian Association for Canadian Studies, the Dutch Ministry of Home Affairs, and the Consulate of France.

Governance and Partnerships
At the beginning of our second year of activities, representatives of CIC and SSHRC joined the CERIS Management Board as ex-officio members. The month of June included a special meeting Board meeting to discuss issues of concern to our community partners on the Management Board (OCASI and SPC of Metro Toronto), as well as a year-end goal-setting retreat with academic, government and community partners. Research priorities established at the retreat were incorporated into our third (1998) RFP. The September meeting of our Partnership Advisory Council (PAC) elected four Executive members, who will rotate as the two PAC representatives (one voting and one non-voting) on the Management Board.

Work in Progress
With funding assistance from Heritage Canada and support from community groups, CERIS has collected a wide range of unpublished community needs assessments for our Resource Centre. The first data sets for use by Metropolis researchers came from Statistics Canada and CIC, and work on our Web Site continued in collaboration with other Metropolis partners. Access to the Resource Centre, the data sets and the Web Site will be fully operational by January, 1998.